


Rescue Op

by BearlyWriting



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Bottom Jason Todd, Catatonic Jason Todd, Forced to Watch, M/M, Non-Consensual Voyeurism, Past Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 11:22:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28527660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BearlyWriting/pseuds/BearlyWriting
Summary: “Ra’s kicks the other foot out and crouches in front of Jason, not lifting the hand from the back of his neck. Jason scowls up at him.“If you need me to put you back in your place here, in front of all your little friends, I will.””Things go a little differently when Dick knocks Jason’s mask off during the fight on infinity island.
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Ra's al Ghul/Jason Todd
Comments: 20
Kudos: 151
Collections: Batfam Kinkmas Exchange 2020, Jason Todd Rare Pair Challenge





	Rescue Op

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MarquiseDesaad](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarquiseDesaad/gifts).



> A kinkmas treat for the lovely gav! I’m sorry it’s late! I’m not sure if it’s exactly what you wanted, either, but I hope you enjoy anyway!
> 
> Reminder to heed the tags everyone!

Artemis misses it happening, too busy trying to keep out of reach of the sword wielding ninja bearing down on her. But she hears Dick’s gasp of shock, the grunt of pain that immediately follows, and the thud of his body hitting the ground. She doesn’t pay it much more mind than she had paid to Superboy’s shout, or the crash of sphere colliding with something solid. She would help if she could, but she can’t afford to be distracted.

Dick’s strangled, desperate “ _Jason?_ ” though? Well, that’s enough to stop her in her tracks. She hasn’t heard him sound like that in a long time - not since Wally. She hasn’t heard that name in a long time either.

For a second, she’s distracted, turning automatically towards her teammate. It’s barely a fraction of a movement, but it’s enough for the ninja to take advantage of, and Artemis’ crossbolt gun is cut in half by one clean slice of his sword. Dammit. She knows better than to allow herself to be distracted like this. She staggers back, keeping her arm raised in useless defense and -

“Enough.”

The voice cuts through the air like a knife. All of the frantic movement stops as everyone turns towards the source. Ra’s al Ghul.

“Well young man,” Ra’s says, stepping out of the shadows. “Are you proud of this little debacle? I believe the detective will be quite disappointed.”

Nightwing is still on the ground, the ninja he’d been fighting standing over him, his sword loose at his side. The ninja is watching Ra’s, as everyone else in the small space is doing - attention drawn automatically to the most imposing presence there. But Dick is still staring up at his attacker as if he hasn’t even noticed Ra’s. There’s no visible reaction to the jibe either, just shocked staring.

Artemis frowns, cold unease creeping through her stomach. Dick’s face is white as a ghost underneath his domino mask. His mouth is hanging half-open in shock. Artemis remembers that strangled little name and the unease tightens into something worse. She glances at the man that’s captured Dick’s attention so thoroughly, but with his face turned to Ra’s, she can only see the back of his head. His hood is gone but the unremarkable mop of black hair that Artemis can see tells her almost nothing.

“I assume you came to recover these children?” Ra’s continues, apparently unbothered by Dick’s lack of reaction. “Take them and go.”

Artemis expects resistance from the kids - from Brion in particular. What she doesn’t expect is for Nightwing to growl “No,” low and dangerous. The whole point of this mission, after all, was to take the kids and get the fuck out of there.

“No?” Ra’s asks, just as low and considerably more dangerous.

Brion, apparently encouraged, snarls, “Not without -”

But Dick has scrambled to his feet and he shouts right over Brion, wild and angry in a way that honestly scares Artemis. “No, we’re not leaving until you explain this!”

Several things happen at once, then. Dick grabs the arm of the ninja beside him. The man jerks in surprise but doesn’t, as Artemis half-expects, lift his sword to defend himself, or even pull away. The man who had destroyed Artemis’ weapon does lift his sword. “Stay your tongue -” he starts, but Artemis doesn’t hear whatever else he says, because by then she’s circled close enough to get a look at whatever has upset Dick so badly.

Even with Dick’s reaction. Even with everything, Artemis could never have predicted what she’s seeing now. It’s like a punch to the gut. All of the air bursts out of her body in one startled sound. Her ears ring like she’s taken a blow. Suddenly, she understands exactly why Dick had looked like he’d seen a ghost, because she’s looking right at one.

Because the boy in Dick’s grip looks exactly like Jason Todd.

Which...which isn’t possible. Because Jason Todd is _dead_.

“Jason?” she manages, as strangled as Dick’s had been.

Distantly, she can sense the others’ confusion. As if from very far away, she hears Ra’s sigh. 

Then, “Oh dear,” he says, in a voice like ice. “This certainly is not ideal. Men, incapacitate them.”

Which is when Artemis realises that, before now, they’ve only been playing with them, because at Ra’s’ order, men dressed in the same dark red garb as Dick’s ninja start pouring into the courtyard. Enough of them that Dick’s small team are easily outnumbered - as if they hadn’t been struggling enough fighting just the three of Ra’s’ men before now. Artemis turns, pulling her bow free, but she knows as well as any of them that they’re fucked. There’s no way they’re going to be able to take all of these people down and escape now.

One of the ninjas cuts her arrow out of the air like it’s nothing. Another swings his sword straight at her head. Artemis ducks, firing another arrow, and surging up to deliver a blow to her attacker’s mask. His head jerks back and he stumbles away, but just as quickly, he’s replaced. Artemis deflects a blow from the sword. There’s a rush of air behind her and Artemis turns just in time for the hilt of a sword to smash hard into her temple.

White flashes across Artemis’ vision. She crumples like a puppet with its strings cut.

When Artemis comes to, it’s to a throbbing pain in her head and an ache in her shoulders. She isn’t surprised by the first, considering the way she’d been knocked out in the first place. Nor is she particularly surprised by the second. She can feel the heavy weight of the cuffs around her wrists and, further up, her elbows, pinning her arms behind her in an uncomfortable stress position.

Shit. This is...definitely not good. This mission has turned from a disaster into a catastrophe. The only thing that could salvage this, is if some of the others managed to get away. Maybe it was only Artemis who was unlucky enough to get taken down.

That hope is dashed a moment later, when Artemis’ vision has finally cleared and she chances a look around.

The others are still here, kneeling around her, their arms trapped behind them in exactly the same way. Any of them that actually have powers also have thick suppressant collars around their necks. Sphere is wrapped in chains. Forager has both sets of arms cuffed in front of him and two swords resting against his neck.

Scratch not good. This is bad. This is _terrible_.

Dick catches her eye and offers her a grim smile. He’s kneeling right next to her, close enough that she could touch him, if she leant over a little to bump their shoulders together. Beyond him, she can see M’gann, slumped over a little but still conscious. Kon is kneeling on Artemis’ other side, glaring at the men standing in front of them as if he might manifest heat vision right then and there, regardless of the collar around his neck.

Artemis follows his gaze and feels another sharp shock at the sight of Jason Todd, older now but undeniably recognisable. He’s standing beside Ra’s, face blank, but his eyes are fixed on Dick. Artemis feels her heart throb in the cage of her ribs. How is this possible? It isn’t right. This is a trick, some cruel ploy that Ra’s has come up with just to hurt them.

“I’m glad to see you’re all awake,” Ra’s says, his voice friendly, as if he’s hosting a sleepover and waking them all up for breakfast or something. “It’s such a shame that we had to resort to this.”

“Ra’s-” Dick starts, but Ra’s cuts him off.

“If you had just left when I gave you the opportunity, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Dick scowls, his jaw clenching angrily. Every few seconds, his eyes flick to Jason before jumping back to Ra’s, as if he can’t bear to have him out of his sight.

“Not until I have an explanation for whatever the fuck is going on here.”

Ra’s sighs, as if Dick has done something particularly disappointing. He pinches the bridge of his nose and Dick’s jaw clenches so tight Artemis thinks she hears it crack.

“Please, Great One,” Artemis tries, through gritted teeth, before Dick can say something he’ll regret. “We’re just asking for an explanation.”

Ra’s looks at her then and Artemis might shrink under his attention if she were anyone else. But she’d spent plenty of time amongst the worst of their enemies when she was working undercover. Ra’s is a lot of things, but he isn’t unnecessarily cruel. He doesn’t scare her.

“I suppose,” Ra’s murmurs, “I can humour you.” 

He moves up beside Jason, setting a hand on the boy’s shoulder. Jason doesn’t turn to look at him, still staring at Dick like he might disappear if Jason looks away.

“My daughter found the boy wandering alone in Gotham and brought him to me. Our tests determined that he was the Detective’s son. So I have kept him safe here and trained him.” Ra’s strokes one hand across Jason’s cheek, strangely fond. “I’m afraid his mind is not what it once was, though.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Dick grits out.

“I imagine dying and coming back takes its toll,” Ra’s says, and Artemis thinks he sounds amused. “I hope his mind will return in due time.”

“Great,” Dick snaps. “Then you can hand him over to me and he can continue his recovery at home.”

Ra’s laughs, then, loud and over-exaggerated. “You aren’t serious, boy?” 

Dick’s glare is almost as hot as Conner’s. He shifts, the muscles in his arms bulging as he strains against the restraints. He opens his mouth to say something no doubt very ill-advised but Conner cuts him off.

“Wait, Nightwing. How do we know he’s even telling the truth?” Conner asks. “You know as well as I do that there could be a hundred explanations for this.”

There’s a strange, desperate edge to the words. Artemis feels her gut clench in sympathy. Jason was Dick’s brother, but he was their team mate too. Dick and Conner and M’gann and Artemis - they’d all known him, all loved him the way it’s only possible to love someone who you’ve lived life-or-death experiences with, who you’ve had to trust to have your back as you have theirs. Jason’s death had devastated Dick, but none of them had come away unscathed.

Seeing him here, now, apparently alive and whole and… _Jason_ : it hurts. Seeing the desperation on Dick’s face, hearing it in Conner’s voice, it reminds Artemis uncomfortably of that day they’d returned from an offworld mission and found Batman waiting for them in Mount Justice. And she doesn’t like to be reminded of that. She doesn’t like to think about the way Dick had crumpled like he’d taken a blow to the head, or M’gann’s shocked sobbing, or the way Kaldur had stumbled and had to catch himself against the counter. She doesn’t like to think about how she’d turned and buried her own tear-streaked face in Wally’s chest.

But, with a dead boy standing in front of them, she can’t avoid it.

“It matters not whether you believe me. I’ve given you the explanation you desired. You’ll be taking your leave now.”

“Not without Jason,” Dick snarls.

“And not without my sister,” Brion shouts, apparently emboldened. “Tara Markov. We know the League of Shadows have her.”

“The shadows may indeed have your sister,” Ra’s says, dismissively. “But I am no longer head of the shadows. As you can see, there are no shadows here. In fact,” he turns to Dick, then, an unreadable expression on his face, “I am no longer part of the light.”

Despite everything, Artemis can sense Dick’s shock at that, an echo of her own.

“Lies,” Brion snarls.

“Ra’s al Ghul is many things,” Dick says. “But he is not a liar.” He turns back to glare at Ra’s. “So he’ll have no problem letting us take Jason and go.”

Ra’s laughs again. “He is not yours to take.”

“He’s not anyone’s,” Dick shouts.

“Wrong. He is mine to do with as I please, to serve me as I please.” The grip on Jason’s shoulder looks tight enough to bruise, but he doesn’t react. He doesn’t seem to even realise it’s him that’s being talked about. “If I order him to kill you all, he’ll do it.”

“He belongs with his family,” Dick snarls.

“You are an interminable annoyance, Grayson. Jason, kill him.”

“No,” Conner shouts, lunging against his restraints. 

Dick flinches but otherwise doesn’t react, even as M’gann makes her own startled sound of protest beside him.

“Great One,” Artemis starts. She can’t let this happen. Dick is one of the best, but right now he’s restrained and he’s compromised. If Jason attacks him, it’s unlikely that Dick will hurt him even if it’s to defend himself.

“No.”

Everyone stills at the word, quiet as it is. Because it had come from _Jason_. Artemis’ chest aches. It’s been so long since she’s heard that voice. Until this second, she hadn’t realised how badly she’d missed him.

“Excuse me?” Ra’s asks, in a voice that’s lethally cold. 

Jason finally turns to look at him. His face is as blank as ever but his eyes are bright.

“No,” he says, again. “Not Gray...son.”

At the sound of his name, Dick makes a small, wounded noise. Artemis’ heart leaps into her throat. Something about hearing Dick’s name, awkward and slow as it is, seems to cement exactly what’s happening in her head. This is Jason. _Jason_. Dick’s little brother. The sweet, cocky little Robin that they’d lost so brutally.

“Jay,” Dick manages, choked. “Little Wing…”

Ra’s tilts his head, curiously. It’s hard to read the expression on his face, but Artemis doubts it means anything good.

“I’m glad your memory seems to be returning,” he says. His voice is soft, but it raises all the hairs on the back of Artemis’ neck. “But I do not appreciate the rebellion. Do you need a reminder of your place, boy?”

Jason snarls, jerking his shoulder out from under Ra’s’ grip. It’s more emotion than Artemis has seen from Jason this whole time and it feels painfully nostalgic. How many times had Artemis seen exactly that scowl on Robin’s face?

“No,” Jason says again, and Artemis can’t tell if it’s just because that’s all he wants to say, or if it’s one of the only things he _can_ say. The thought draws her throat tight.

Ra’s moves lightning fast, gripping the back of Jason’s neck and sweeping one leg out to knock Jason’s feet out from under him. Jason staggers but it looks like he might stay upright, until Ra’s uses his grip to force him down to his knees. Jason catches himself on one bent leg, the other braced with a firm foot on the ground. His hand goes automatically to the sword at his side. For a moment, Artemis thinks they might be about to watch the two of them fight, but Ra’s snarls, “Stay down,” and Jason freezes as if the words were physical restraints.

Ra’s kicks the other foot out and crouches in front of Jason, not lifting the hand from the back of his neck. Jason scowls up at him.

“If you need me to put you back in your place here, in front of all your little friends, I will.”

“Ra’s,” Dick snarls. But Ra’s ignores him. Instead, he draws one arm back and smacks it hard across Jason’s face.

Halo screams as he falls. Conner yells, a startled sound of protest. Dick’s arms flex, snapping against the restraints like he’s intending to launch himself across the courtyard at Ra’s.

Jason himself is silent. He doesn’t try to catch himself, just lets the blow take him to the ground. Curled up on his side like this, his cheek already reddening, beneath a man taller and more dangerous than him, Artemis can imagine exactly how he might have looked in that warehouse. The thought is not a pleasant one.

Ra’s follows Jason to the ground. He settles with his knees on either side of Jason’s legs before reaching out and curling one hand into Jason’s hair, cupping the other around his hip. Something about the touch turns Artemis’ stomach. It’s strangely intimate and - less strangely - possessive.

“You would think you like this,” Ra’s hisses, using his grip to force Jason onto his knees, keeping his head pressed to the ground. “The number of times you force me to do this.”

Artemis’ heart is pounding. She can feel the blood pulsing in her head. Her stomach feels like she’s stepped off of a building and now she’s plummeting through the air. This… _please_ let this not be what she thinks it is. Ra’s wouldn’t...he wouldn’t do that. Not here. Not to Jason.

“What are you doing?” M’gann asks, a little shrill, but also, Artemis thinks, genuinely confused.

Ra’s ignores her too. The hand on Jason’s hip shifts to his waist. He fumbles there for a moment, then, in one smooth movement, he drags Jason’s trousers down to his knees. Jason makes a soft sound but doesn’t resist, his arms sprawled limply around his head.

Artemis’ stomach somehow drops even further.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Dick roars. He starts to get to his feet, but one of Ra’s’ men steps up behind him and forces him back to his knees. Dick fights, throwing his shoulders back to try to escape the grip, but the man just brings his sword up and presses it hard into Dick’s throat, stilling him.

Artemis doubts he truly doesn’t know what’s happening here. If he doesn’t, all of his doubts must be erased when Ra’s tugs at his own trousers and frees his cock, already hard in his grip.

Artemis feels dizzy. The world spins nauseatingly for a moment. Her heart throbs in her mouth.

“Don’t,” she croaks, although the sound is lost beneath both Dick and Conner’s furious yells.

“Be quiet,” Ra’s snaps, even as he shifts to grip Jason’s hips with both hands. “Or you will only make this worse for him.”

For a moment, there’s silence, then, in a tremulous voice, Black Lightning says: “Hey, man, you don’t have to do this.”

“ _Don’t_ do this,” Dick adds, with too much heat to really be called pleading. “I’ll kill you if you touch him.”

Ra’s just smiles. “If it is his virtue you are concerned for, Grayson, then you need not fret. Your brother has made me teach him this lesson many times.”

Nausea rolls over Artemis so strongly that she has to clench her teeth hard against the acid in her throat. Dick makes a horrible choking sound and seems to sway where he is, although whether it’s because he’s lightheaded, or because he instinctively went to get up again and thought better about it, Artemis can’t tell. When she glances at his face, he’s paler than she’s ever seen, lips peeled back in a furious grimace, and the lenses of his domino are wide and white.

Ra’s had just admitted to doing this before. To _raping_ Jason before. How many times, Artemis wonders morbidly. How long has he been here? Trapped with Ra’s and his men, hurt and alone and not in his right mind, being subjected to Ra’s’ depravity? The thought is not one she wants to examine too closely.

Unfortunately, the situation they’re currently in isn’t much better. Because Ra’s is clearly about to rape Jason here and now, right in front of his brother and his team mates and all of the kids. Artemis has the hysterical urge to cover Halo’s eyes, although she’s too far away to reach her and even if they were closer, she can’t exactly use her hands. It’s not like she can cover Dick’s, either, although they’re close enough to touch. She doubts Dick would let her, anyway. He’s staring at the scene in front of them with brutal intensity.

“If you _have_ touched him,” Dick says, in a voice that Artemis has never heard from him before, even during the worst missions, “if you touch him now….there will be nowhere on the Earth you’ll be able to hide from me. Or from Batman.”

Artemis shudders at the malice in his voice. She shudders, too, at the thought of Batman’s reaction when he finds out what happened here: that his beloved second son is somehow miraculously alive and that Ra’s has kept him here, away from his family, and hurt him so terribly.

But Ra’s seems considerably less concerned. “Don’t be so full of yourself, boy. I am not afraid of you or your mentor. And I do not need to take orders from a team of children. I will do with my property what I will.”

With that, he repositions his grip on Jason’s hips and thrusts forward.

Jason makes a high, keening sound that’s too strangled to be called a scream. Dick makes a horrible retching noise and jerks forward, although the sword at his neck keeps him still. Distantly, Artemis can hear Jefferson curse. Artemis shuts her own eyes tight. She doesn’t want to see this. She doesn’t want to see Ra’s force himself into Jason in short, brutal strokes.

It’s bad enough having to hear it, having to hear Jason’s punched-out breaths, his little whines and sobs, Ra’s’ moans and pants of pleasure. She can hear Dick and Conner on either side of her, too. Dick is crying, quietly, but his little hitching breaths give him away. Conner is cursing, a low, long stream of profanity.

“This is your place,” Ra’s says, and Artemis opens her eyes automatically at the sound of his voice.

Ra’s is bent over Jason, his hands still gripping his hips tight, his own hips hammering against Jason’s ass. One of Jason’s cheeks is pressed into the ground. His mouth is open as he pants through the pain. Hazy, tear-filled eyes are locked on Dick.

Dick is staring right back. His own tears are streaming over his cheeks, leaking out from under the domino mask. He looks more pained than Artemis has ever seen him, pale and pinched and agonised. Artemis blinks and realises that her own eyes are hot and wet. Something trickles over her cheek.

All she can see is the little boy she had known. The sweet kid with the cheeky smile and the big, bleeding heart. He’d been so small when she’d known him, still filling out, waiting for his growth spurt. When he’d died, he’d still looked exactly like the child he was.

He’s bigger now. Older. But still young. Too young for this. No one deserves this.

And all she can think about is that little boy, trapped under Ra’s, being violated so brutally.

She can’t imagine how Dick feels. She can’t imagine how _Jason_ feels. Well, she _can_ imagine, but she doesn’t want to.

She doesn’t want to be here. She doesn’t want this to be happening.

Jason makes a small, dissenting sound. His hands scrabble at the cobbles. Blood streaks across the stone.

Ra’s grunts and leans forward to bite at the curve of Jason’s neck.

“This isn’t his place,” Dick snarls. “His place is with his family. Not some jumped-up rapist _freak_.”

Ra’s doesn’t bother replying to that. Instead, he grips Jason’s hair again, dragging him up to press a kiss to Jason’s wet lips. 

Artemis looks away. When she turns her head, she meets Conner’s eyes where he’s watching Nightwing with concern. He grimaces when he catches her gaze. She knows he must be hurting as badly as she is. Knows M’gann must be too. 

Not that she thinks the kids or Jefferson are having a better time. Is this the first time any of them have been exposed to this kind of violence? Well, not Jefferson, maybe. But the kids? They shouldn’t be watching this. They shouldn’t be subjected to this.

“No,” Jason says, suddenly. “No.”

Ra’s laughs. Then he lets out a low sound of pleasure, hips stuttering before he pauses, pressed flush against Jason. Bile rises at the back of Artemis’ throat. It isn’t hard to tell what just happened.

“I’ll kill you,” Dick says. It’s strangely even, devoid of emotion. That scares Artemis more than if he’d have screamed it.

Ra’s straightens, readjusting his clothing. He tugs Jason’s trousers up too and Artemis is glad for it, even if it burns in her chest.

“You can certainly try, boy, but you will not succeed.”

Looking at Dick - at the cold fury on his face, the tension in every muscle in his body - Artemis thinks that he might.

“Men,” Ra’s says, coolly, “escort these children from my island.”

“If you think I’m leaving now-“

“I don’t think I recall giving you a choice.”

The men around them start hauling them upright. Dick fights, for a moment, until one of the men presses his sword to Artemis’ throat.

“Nightwing,” M’gann calls, a little desperately. “We’ll come back. We’ll save him.”

“Jason,” Dick shouts, as if he hasn’t heard her. “Jaybird.”

“Dick,” Jason whispers, barely loud enough to hear, still pressed into the ground where Ra’s had left him.

Dick’s face crumples into an expression of agony. He lunges against the hands on him, but there’s no more give than there’s ever been.

“Nightwing,” Conner tries, this time. “We’ll come back for him. We have to leave.”

Whether he wants to or not, Nightwing is manhandled back to the bioship along with the rest of them. M’gann’s collar is removed, but none of their other restraints are. M’gann hesitates for a second, as if considering turning around and fighting, before she closes the bioship door on the courtyard and takes off.

Dick crumples to his knees and sobs.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! :)


End file.
